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OK. Since nobody else seems eager to run into the water to hack up a big fish we'll cancel this combat...

Ay hurls himself out of the murky water as Barran and Philo haul on the rope to assist the elf up the slippery ramp. The Gar flicks its tail angrily and once again disappears into the dark water. Ay begins to warm himself up by the fire too and describes the threat to the rest of you. He points out that so far, this watery room in the complex that you are now trapped in, is the only one with anything of interest in it. It must hold the key to way out.

As you are discussing, what to do next Neblin, popping up from wherever he's been hiding, tugs on Dural's sleeve to get his attention. He says some words in deep gnome and questioningly makes a waving motion with his hand...like a fish swimming through water. Getting confirmation, his eyes light up and he rubs his belly and then points at all of your bellies. His intent is quite clear, "get me that fish I will feed you." and he drops his pack and starts rummaging around for his cooking pots and spices.

"I don't think I can take it alone, but with some careful planning, I think we can deal with the fish and then explore further. I don't imagine that things manages to live in just a little pool of water, so it has to lead somewhere." Noticing the motions from the dark gnome, "And I think maybe get some food out of it, too. Don't normally like fish, but it'd be better than more dry rations."

Dural turns and narrows his eyes at Neblin for a moment before getting the picture, nodding, and turnin' back towards the others. "Provided it ain't eaten anything even worse. Or's poisonous. Or burns through iron," he says, listing off a few more unappetizing possibilities, while still nudging towards the edge of the water and keeping his eye out for any tentacles or worse. "Do we have a plan that ain't wade forward? What did th'room look like 'round the bend?"

"How about .."
Salazar pauses briefly, making sure he has everyone's attention...".. we stuff that goblin's corpse full of sharp and pointy bits, perhaps some poison if anyone has any, and toss it into the pool? Maybe add some of our rations to make it a little more appetising .. oh and I can magic it to make it taste like bacon. Or whatever the fish equivalent of bacon is!"

// Regarding the water, prestidigitation allows for:
"You chill, warm, or flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for 1 hour."
If i flavour the water near the ramp to taste like blood, and we then start rowing the water towards the middle of the room to disperse said water..
is that something our dear DM would allow?

"Fellows I just searched my backpack .. I don't have anything that I could stuff into the fish."

"ok, we have rope, right?
soooo all we do is make a lasso, dump the goblin's tasty corpse into the water near the ramp, I'll flavour the corpse, water, Dural, you name it, to lightly toasted halfling, and then we simply yoink the fish out of the water when it comes calling!"

//If we can make it taste/smell like anything we want anyway, why bother with rations?

Once the fire has rid Barran of squelchy clothes, he approaches the goblin's body to see if he can assist in the preparations. The sight of the halfling grinning while holding a heavy crossbow almost as long as he is tall is somewhat disconcerting."Putting a piece of bait on the end of a bolt, then using the line to pull the trigger when the fish comes a-nibblin' doesn't sound too bad. But if you want to try the exploding corpse plan, I admit I'm mobidly curious to see what we can come up with when we want things to go boom."

//If we can make it taste/smell like anything we want anyway, why bother with rations?

Once the fire has rid Barran of squelchy clothes, he approaches the goblin's body to see if he can assist in the preparations. The sight of the halfling grinning while holding a heavy crossbow almost as long as he is tall is somewhat disconcerting."Putting a piece of bait on the end of a bolt, then using the line to pull the trigger when the fish comes a-nibblin' doesn't sound too bad. But if you want to try the exploding corpse plan, I admit I'm mobidly curious to see what we can come up with when we want things to go boom."

//If it bites into a withered husk expecting tasty tasty treats, it'll die sad. If I put rations into the husk, it'll be super happy to finally have a decent meal again and can die elated. I don't want the fish's last emotion to be disappointment.

//ok I'll just freeform this and see how it goes! Apologies if I'm taking too many liberties.

Ay and Barran, being the lightest and most dexterous of the group, being carefully affixing pitons along the walls and into the ceiling of the watery room, whilst feeding rope through them. A sturdy lasso is knotted at the furthest end, weighted at the bottom of the loop and slowly released into the murky water.
Philo, Dural and Salazar, in the meantime, make good use of the supplies they have available to them: crossbow bolts, leather strappings, rope, copper wiring and, of course, the long dead goblin. By the time Ay and Barran had completed their preparations, the goblin had become an inverted pincushion.
Dural and Philo gently position the flavour enhanced corpse under the last piton and juuuust in front of the lasso; they then hurry back towards the ramp. Dural and Ay man the rope that ends in a lasso, Philo and Barran man a secondary rope that's attached to the goblin's spine. Salazar wades into the water a bit, just enough to get a good view of the trap they've laid, enhances the water around the corpse ... and waits ...

If you want rolls or to do other stuff, ignore the next bit.

Time goes by .. slowly. Salazar had hoped the fish would bite sooner, perhaps all the excitement has made it more cautious. It's not long before Salazar actively feels the cold and damp chewing at his feet. He considers asking for a swap, but the thought of having to physically exert himself holds him at bay. He almost decides to call it a day when ripples begin to close in on the goblin ..
A huge fish lunges out of the water and sinks its maw into the goblin! It's now or never!

Suddenly, the enormous Gar lunges from the water clamping its maw around the deliciously enhances goblin corpse. Immediately it is impaled with a number of blade and bolts! If a fish could scream, this Gar would be doing it. Its long, heavy body thrashes in the water and it mightily pulls against the lure it is hung up on.

@Aegis or @Mongrel Idiot - One of you make a Strength check with Advantage to Haul the Gar out of the water vs the Gar's STR check below to break free of the "hook"

Philo hauls on the rope, trying his best to match the gar's movements and not snap the line. He remembers the old days, fishing with his brothers in the lakes near their village. This, of course, is virtually nothing like that.

Nice! Geth kinda gave that one to you, so direct all praise in his (hers? it's?) direction.

Busy day tomorrow, so if someone wants to run with a big ass fish on a hook story, please do so. I won't be able to post much, so consider the Car well and truly hooked and yours [/] to do with as you please.

With Philo's past experience in fishing, Dural lets him take the lead on the line pulling. Carefully watching each twitch and spasm the Gar puts out, the warrior chooses his moment..."NOW!!"

With a mighty heave on the line, the Gar is snapped upright and hauled completely out of the water. Crossbow bolts can be seen sticking out of it's head and lower jaw. It is not dead, and is still thrashing about, but without the fish having the purchase of water to use to throw its weight around its struggles become easier to bear. After a few minutes, the thrashing slows as it runs out of the steam, and has no water passing through its gills. The mighty fish is not long for this world...

Neblin is very excited. He and Angus rush off to the larger room, over by the late Goblin's nest. You can hear sounds of destruction as they start to dismantle his barricade to use as firewood for a cookfire.

Nice Work!

There is still the matter of the Gar actually dying first, but the threat of the Temple is over(?). You still need to explore said watery temple to find the way out of these closed off set of rooms.

"Lad, 'tis a big fish. We'll need ta butcher it, clean the scales, debone the filets...there be some work that needs doin' ta this here fish." Angus says, "Either you lads find us a way back up the Well fer us to use the Yawning Portal's kitchen afore this Gar starts ta go rotten on us, or ya need to put yer feet up and let us get crackin' on this fish."

Salazar strips down to his skivvies, leaving his spell components (If any?) and other assorted magic-y fetishes with his pack and robes. Gripping his dagger tight he first dips his toes, and then his whole foot into the water on the top of the ramp. Its not as cold as first thought, but it is rather slimy on the bottom. All the thrashing recently has cleared the scum from the top of the water however. That's a bonus.

The dwarf moves over to the edge of the water, bending this way and that to try and peer out into the darkness and around the corner (as if that's going to work) without having to step in the slimy muck. "Be needin' a raft," he grumbles before begrudgingly wading into the muck after Salazar, smell be damned, "Or a sewer pipe. Simple thing to craft a hall like this with a bleedin' sewer pipe." His plan was, with his eyes occasionally darting to the surrounding walls, to try and find a drier path or any sign of immediate, but the slimy nature of the pool he now finds himself in keeps him grumbling so much as to hardly focus on anything else.

My head's been spinning the last few days, sorry about that. If the water's too deep for a dwarf to wade into, just yell, but I think it was just barely high enough.

The water is cold and thick with scum, the only movement on the surface are the ripples caused by your legs. As Barran moves forwards, he must move cautiously as there is a build up of slimy algae growing on the stones under the water. Finally, Barran reaches the bottom of the ramp where the water level comes to the middle of his chest, or so.

The figure rising up out of the water on the north side of the room is a statue. The dim purple radiance emanates from it. The statue is constructed of grey, weathered stone and depicts a web-fingered fish man with black openings where great, staring eyes would normally be. Flaring fin-like ears are on the side of its head and it has a wide, flanged mouth.

Its a Sahaguin, if your characters would know that...

Don't worry about positioning....just including the map as a reference

The water is about 24-30" deep and counts as Rough Terrain, costing double movement. Also, due to the slimey stones underfoot, any actions/situations that depend on stability are taken at Disadvantage.

Salazar wades into the water towards the statue. The closer he gets, his well-honed magical senses can easily deduce that the statue is limed in an old faerie fire dweomer. That is the source of the statues glow.

As Salazar gets within touching distance, he can also figure out that there is another source of the magical power emanating from within the statue itself. Looking closer, he notices that there is a very cleverly hidden hinge in the neck, that would allow one to tip the carved head back and reveal a compartment hidden within.

Still wading through the muck, and still grumbling, the dwarf pauses by the glowy statue, his eyes squinting. "Not a bad idea fer a thing like that to be lettin' ye find yer way in the darkness. Least, if ye ain't a dwarf. Ye need a closer eye on it, just yell, I'll be wanderin' around this swamp of a room checkin' fer a way out." With that said, the dwarf waddles through the water up to the wall by the statue as a start, his hands feeling around the walls for any kind of mechanism and occasionally tapping with the butt of his hammer and listening for any hollow rejoinder, before slowly moving about the other walls of the room unless interrupted.